How concerned are you about teen drug and alcohol use and abuse? As a counselor for both in-class and online minor in possession classes and online drug classes, I should let you know that you should be very concerned.

The use of illegal drugs among children is a growing concern for all substance abuse treatment programs. As reported in www.fox11online.com.

It seems that drug counselors in high schools are getting more and more ninth graders coming in to see them with substance abuse issues.

Crazy as it may sounds, but illegal drug use is moving further into younger and younger age groups. Drug treatment facilities across the country are noticing more and more patients are skewing younger, sometimes starting drug use at the age of nine years old.

Marijuana remains popular with teens. But there also has been a sharp increase an increase in cough medicine and over the counter drugs. Reaching almost epidemic proportions are problems with prescription drug abuse and other prescription drugs.

25% - A Terrifying Number

According to a 2011 survey by the Centers for Disease Control, more than 25 percent of roughly 15,000 private and public high schoolers asked, admitted to having offered, sold or given an illegal drug by someone on school property.

That same study shows about 20 percent admitted to using pain killers, stimulants (like Adderall) or other mood altering drugs one or more times, without a prescription in 2009.

Every day sees more and more opportunity for youth to experiment with drugs. It is getting more difficult by the day to keep our children clean and sober. We must educate our youth that prescription medications are very dangerous. More drug classes are needed and a strong effort between parents and school administrators must be developed.

We all have certain perceptions about drugs and addiction. Even those who are not counselors for in-class or online drug classes have some opinion and certain beliefs pertaining to drugs and drug addiction.

Do you think that popular culture gives a realistic picture of the risks involved with youth substance abuse? YouTube may show kids having fun at a party, but it doesn’t show kids becoming violently ill or the legal trouble they can get in.

I am a firm believer that fear works. Kids need to be afraid to experiment with drugs. While some may feel simple experimentation is okay, the reality is that anyone who ever has been addicted to a substance wished they never had experimented in the first place!

One recent study addressing the pervasiveness of drugs on high school campuses took place in Ohio.

Citing a 2011 online youth risk survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 43 percent of Ohio high school students reported using marijuana at least once. Almost 25 percent admitted offering, selling or having been given an illegal drug on school property.

A poll of high school students in the 2011 found that 54 percent had tried alcohol and 26 percent described themselves as “current drinkers.”

Despite self-deprecating jokes about not caring about your partner’s sexual gratification, there is no doubt we all want to satisfy our mates. So, how can a drug class help you sexually please your significant other, or one-night stand?

Given all of the other bad effects of drug use, it should come as no surprise that researchers have found that drug abuse negatively affects sexual performance in men even after years of abstinence. As reported in articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com.

That is really bad news. In previous studies, abstinence from drugs seemed to show that men spontaneously recovered their normal sexual performance at three weeks after quitting substance abuse.

The study included 550 men who had been diagnosed with alcohol, cocaine, cocaine and alcohol, heroin, marijuana and speedball (cocaine and heroin) addiction.

Of course this study was conducted in Spain, the home of the virile man!

Assessing Four Areas

The researchers examined and evaluated four areas of sexual performance: sexual desire, sexual satisfaction, sexual arousal and orgasm. The study revealed that the study group had a moderately to significantly impaired sexual performance as compared to controls.

Additionally, the researchers separately examined the effects of the different substances on sexuality. For instance, speedball and cocaine abuse prevailingly affect sexual pleasure, while they slightly affect sexual desire. Indeed, cocaine users have very high sexual desire during peak periods of drug abuse.

What about Booze?

Alcohol is the drug which most affects sexual arousal (erectile capacity). This is the first study to reveal the permanent effect of substance abuse on sexuality, even after long abstinence periods. Finally, orgasms are impaired by heroin, cocaine, alcohol and speedball.

So, do yourself and your mate a favor – stay off of drugs and alcohol!

Prescription medications are a major problem in the United States today. Arizona is no exception.

According to a recent government report, Arizona had the sixth-highest level of prescription pain-reliever abuse in the nation in 2010-2011. It could have been worse. As reported in www.covnews.com.

The study showed that about 5.66 percent of Arizona residents ages 12 and above were misusing prescription drugs in that period. That compares nationally to a rate of just over 4.5%.

Good News?

That was the bad news. The good news is the rate of abuse dropped at both the state and national levels from the previous reporting period in 2009-2010, when the rates were 6.31 percent and 4.89 percent, respectively. Arizona fell from third- to sixth-highest in the nation in the same period.

Why do you think so many people are suffering prescription medication abuse? In my opinion it is a combination of overprescribing by doctors, the sale of unused medication and a lack of good drug education classes about the pitfalls of prescription-drug addiction.

Part of the solution is a law passed in 2007, creating a database of patients who get prescriptions for powerful pain relievers. Doctors are encouraged, but not required, to check the database before writing a prescription to make sure patients are not doctor shopping.

I feel that accessing these databases should be mandatory for doctors prescribing certain medications. Increased vigilance combined with more Arizona drug classes will keep nipping at away at this big problem.

Have you ever heard the name Fred Smoot? If you are a fan of the National Football League and the Minnesota Vikings, his name most certainly will ring a bell.

Before December, 2012, the most notable attribution was that Smoot was a member of the Vikings and had orchestrated a sex party on a boat that got a bunch of people in a slew of trouble. As reported in www.sportsgrid.com.

I am glad to see he is maturing in his old age and enjoying his retirement. Last we heard from him, he was taking online courses to finish up his degree in communications. Then it gets interesting.

Police originally pulled over his Audi A7 because it had no tags. Smoot, who was the driver, was unable to produce registration tags. He then claimed that his temporary tags were wet because snow had gotten on them. Officers also happened to notice that his eyes were red and blurry, and performed a field sobriety test. Smoot was not sober and wobbled and did other drunk things before officers arrested him.

Then it gets downright funny. At the police station, Smoot refused a breathalyzer test twice while he was being booked. During processing, in the service area, while handcuffed, Smoot pissed his pants creating a puddle on the floor. One officer said he witnessed the urine running down his pant leg and onto the floor. Smoot did not express that he had to use the restroom.

Former NFL cornerback Fred Smoot last played in the NFL in 2009, capping off a nine-year career with the Washington Redskins and Minnesota Vikings.

I hope he is mandated to a good alcohol class and chooses sobriety. It is obvious he has a problem with alcohol.

Is there a cure for prescription drug abuse? Is it 15 hour drug classes? That is the $billion question.

If you are alive in America and watch television or read news you know that the abuse of prescription drugs has been on our radar for many years as a growing problem. Some of the research says it’s a growing epidemic. As reported in www.libertytribune.com.

It has been estimated that as many as 1 in 10 high school students has abused a prescription medication in the past 30 days. As a counselor for both in-class and online drug classes I find that number to be excessive, however, the fact remains, there is a serious problem.

Part of the problem is perception. Youth do not have the perception that these drugs are harmful since they are medicine. However, if they are misused, they are as mind-altering and lethal as any illegal drug. It does not help that many begin their use from the medicine cabinet in their own homes.

Do you also think there is a perception in society that using prescription medication is acceptable? As a society, people are unaware that people are misusing prescription drugs or they think it is not like other drugs. If so, I would certainly argue that mandatory drug classes are initiated to educate our public on the dangers of prescription meds.

One avenue to combat this scourge has been to have public forums on the topic where parents can come with their children. In order to win this war it is going to take a strong, combined effort from both parents and the community.

Due to popular demand, we've added some new resource pages to our website. These pages are a permanent feature of the site and will help people seeking information related to drug use and abuse. The new pages are:

As a counselor for both in-class and online drug classes I am very interested in the approaches other countries use to help with drug education and drug education. I was recently reviewing information on how Kenya attempts to keep kids off of drugs.

In Kenya, teachers play an important role both as instructors and role models to help keep youth from using drugs. As reported in allafrica.com.

The reason teachers have been drawn into the fight is, of course, because there has been a dramatic increase in drug use among Kenyan youth.

While Kenya sponsors “patriot clubs” to try and educate teachers and others on the dangers of substance abuse, I would like to see more drug education classes. Patriotism for your country can only go so far to keeping rowdy youth from experimenting with drugs and alcohol.

As a counselor for a drug class, I recall one of my students describing his experience with “drug education” in Kenya. His assertion was that the Kenyan government did not really care about stamping out drug use. They play the “patriot game” and compare using drugs to being unpatriotic.

My student, nor any of his Kenyan friends ever took the message seriously. He agrees that serious drug education classes are necessary because the majority of Kenyans have little idea why drug use is dangerous.

Do you think legalizing marijuana is a good thing? There are people on both sides of the fence. As a father of young children, my stance is firmly on the side of the fence of keeping this drug as illegal as possible.

If you have kids, you most likely prayed hard that they would avoid drugs and alcohol. Once a child becomes intoxicated, childhood is over. The young person will never be the same again. As reported in rapidcityjournal.com.

There seems to be little restraint in society these days. From government spending to personal spending to doing whatever we feel like doing, America seems to be in an “all-in” and “all is good” attitude.

With almost 30 million Americans currently categorized as substance abusers, you would think that we might see drugs and alcohol as the serious problems they are.

So why then have both Washington State and Colorado legalized the use of marijuana? Not only that but Americans across the country are celebrating this as if it is the first step toward national legalization.

Stop the Madness!

The excuses for legalization are nonsense. The usual excuses are put forth: It's a freedom issue. We can tax the drug to generate revenue. It will get the criminal element out of it.

But the truth is that legalized pot (or drugs of any kind) creates massive unintended consequences.

Americans are not alone in their madness.

The Netherlands recently passed a new law, forbidding children from smoking pot in school, and in Portugal, they have legalized all drugs. The result: Drug-related homicides have increased by 40 percent. Drug overdoses are up by 30 percent.

We need to keep drugs off the street and out of our children’s hands. If increased drug classes are not the complete answer, they provide some help. There is no doubt that drugs are pervasive in society. That does not mean we should just give up!

How bad is America’s prescription drug problem? If the state of Kentucky is any example, it is pretty darn bad.

According to a recent poll, one-third of Kentucky adults have friends or relatives who have experienced problems from abusing prescription pain relievers, and 8 percent have used pain medicine when it wasn't prescribed or for the feeling it caused. That is 1/3 of every person in the state! As reported in www.weku.fm.

If you narrow it down with age-banding it gets even scarier. Almost half (49%) of those aged 18-29 have friends or relatives who have suffered or currently suffer from addiction to pain medication. In the 30-45-year-old bracket 40% report problems with prescription pain meds, as compared to the 25% of those 46-65.

The poll found that young adults are more likely to have the problem. Among those 18 to 29 years old, 13 percent said they had used pain medicine when it wasn't prescribed or for the feeling it caused.

It is not surprising that drug-overdose deaths in Kentucky correspond to a steep increase in the sales of opioid prescription pain relievers, which include OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and codeine. More than half of Kentucky adults in the poll reported being prescribed such drugs.

Do you think mandatory Kentucky drug classes would help curb this problem? Should doctors come under strict monitoring? I respect your opinions too.